Pride of America

Sandy

Age: 43

Occupation:Sales

Number of Cruises: 4

Cruise Line: Norwegian

Ship: Pride of America

Sailing Date: February 17th, 2007

Itinerary: Hawaii

We have just returned from this sailing. We
will never sail on NCL again. Had we seen the reviews prior to booking we would
have made other plans but since we didn't we just figured that we would go with
an open mind and hope for the best.

We have sailed previously with Royal
Caribbean and have loved every cruise.

First, we traveled with our 3 children, ages
10, 9, and 6. All of them loved the RC cruise and the great activities they
offered. This time they would not spend any time in the children's activities
area and found them no fun at all.

We had a family suite at the very front of
the ship, direct view of where we were going. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, dressing
area, plasma TV, coffee grinder/espresso/cap/coffee maker with 100% Kona coffee.
Large balcony with 2 lounge chairs. 1 Bathroom had a tub/shower, the other just
a shower. We can not complain about the size of the room or amenities in the
room. The room was kept up and serviced regularly, we also had a butler who was
great. But, please keep in mind, that this cruise with air cost us over $14,000
and that does not include the excursions or the on board account, with that you
can add an addition $2,000 to the cost. So we should have had a good room and
service to match. But the 'good' service ended there.

The food was terrible, and I do mean
terrible. This was our first experience with "Freestyle" eating and it will be
our last. We made reservations in the East Meets West restaurant the first
night. The food was just ok and it cost us $120.00 to eat there. The "better"
dinning areas all required reservations, which our butler made for us and with
the exception of the Italian restaurant, all had cover charges which were
outrageous. I would suggest that you make your reservations the first day and
only do the Italian one, and try to book it more than once. By the way, if you
do make a reservation and do not cancel it if you decide not to go they will
charge you a fee. The best meal we had was at a McDonalds while on shore. We
were more than a little upset with the food. My kids would only eat on shore or
the chicken wings in the cafe during the day or the hamburgers.

Also, we had to bring soda and water on board
when we went ashore to keep in the refrigerator. We also took the small cartons
of milk in the Aloha cafe to keep in the room too. Unlike RC, they only had
water and unsweetened ice tea in the fountains during the day. What kid drinks
unsweetened ice tea? RC always had fountain soda or fruit punch for free, NCL
must need the money because you couldn't get anything but water for the kids
unless you paid for it.

Breakfast was terrible. The same cold eggs,
waffles and such every day. The Aloha Cafe had the same food as the sit down
restaurant and it was bad in both places. They always ran out of food and the
fruit flies on the fruit filled pastry was nasty, especially since the staff did
not remove the items and just looked at it. The desserts in the afternoon in the
Aloha cafe were very good though, but that is because they were brought on the
ship on not made there.

The staff is so poorly trained it wasn't
funny. No one had any knowledge of the ship or islands.

The excursions were way over priced. We only
did the luau on Maui and had no real choice, because of our terrible flights
out, 11:55pm on Saturday, but to do the Grand Finale on the last day. We rented
a car the other days ourselves and drove to the sites and beaches and saved a
ton of money doing that. My suggestion would be to rent a car, look for deals
from home for the days in the ports you want. The people that did that saved
even more by booking the cars early from home. Also, if you are doing the final
day tour they have a luau, not mentioned in the excursion book, so don't bother
with the one on Maui, we did not know and could have saved ourselves about $400
by not doing the so-so one on Maui and just waiting for the one at the
Polynesian Culture Center.

We live on the east coast and although there
were many flights out earlier they did not give us our return flight until
11:55pm and we did not get home until 8:30pm on Sunday. Needless to say, it was
way too long for any child to endure (although my kids were great about it).
Considering how much we paid they should have had us on better flights. I think
they do this so you will spend more money on the excursions. Which by the way
you can get much cheaper off the ship by the same companies that do the tours,
you can even book some on line by these same tour groups yourself and save some
money by not booking through the ship.
The entertainment, if you can call it that, was pathetic.

The other big issue we had was the "service
charge" they put on your bill at the end. This crew doesn't earn their tips,
like on other ships, they get it automatically from the forced charge for each
passenger. This was $10 per day per adult and $5 per day per child. The only one
we had to tip with cash at the end was our butler and she was the only one who
earned it.

The islands are beautiful but if you have a
choice I strongly recommend that you fly to a resort and island hop another way.
If you can get out of this cruise do yourself a favor and do it. I wish we had.

I just hope that NCL gets some real
competition in the future from another cruise line, they are the only one that
does the shorter 7 day sails, because that may be the only time they will shape
up. Right now they are basically the only game in town and have not listened to
the many complaints they have gotten. We spoke with many people on this cruise
and not one said they were happy or that they would ever sail with NCL again.
They have forever lost our business.